Do we really need that? OR What it's like to register for gifts

Howdy, readers! It has been too long. We have been quite busy and have even been productive too. For Easter weekend, I decided to take a break from work and focus on some wedding things that Heather and I have been wanting to do for a while. I took Friday and Monday off of work to spend time getting those things done.

Friday was a BIG day. Big in the way that Godzilla is a big lizard. We went to make our wedding registry. As it was a day off from work though, I started the day off right (approx. 9:45 AM). Heather and I lounged around in our pajamas, thankful for the leisure time that we had. We soon got dressed (not too soon mind you) and went to grab some lunch. After lunch, it was time for the main event.

I should describe to you where our minds were focusing at the outset of our registry efforts. We were expecting to be given a scan gun, pointed off into the great unknown, and set loose on the unwitting establishment to unleash the scanning fury. What actually happened can be described as a comedy of errors.

The first stop: JCPenney. Scene: Heather and I arrive at JCPenney in the Oak Park Mall and enter the establishment where the customer service desk is located. We state our case. The "kind" lady at the counter informs us that we are in the wrong location and that we should try the JCPenney Home Store that is located at 119th and Metcalf Avenue.

The second stop: JCPenney Home Store. Scene: Heather and I, feeling our lunch (ie. we are tired and want a nap), stumble into the entrance and walk towards the counter. We state our case. They direct us to the registry machine. They explain briefly how to operate the system and that if we register for 15 items, we get a free wedding planner. They also tell us that one of the registry kiosk's printer is malfunctioning.

So we enter our information into the system and check out a gun. So far so good. I decide we need two guns. At this time, dark and sinister music should have begun playing in the background. I enter into the system our credentials (I still can't remember the password) and select the option to check out a gun. The kiosk makes a noise (normal), the light comes on underneath the gun (normal), we pull on the gun (duh) and the gun does not come out (NOT normal). Instead of moving on, we decide that is the only gun in the world that will possibly fill our needs. We spend ten minutes trying to get it out to no avail. We go to the "broken" kiosk, enter our credentials (several times as I didn't know the password then either) and finally get our other gun. Which we used. Once. Okay, twice.





We register for the usual suspects. Towels. Sheets. China. Picture frames. Pots and pans. The list goes on and I will not bore you any more than I already probably have.

Any who...About an hour and a half later, we have scaned every item that we think that we would possibly ever need to have from JCPenney or any other store for that matter (hint: we are wrong) and proceed to check the guns into the kiosks. For us to receive the wedding planner (mentioned above in paragraph 5, sentence 4), we have to provide a print out of the things we choose to register. Why they can't look this up, I don't know. It probably has something to do with the password I can't remember and Heather has a hard time typing. Regardless, we have to print the list out. So the kiosk that has the "non-broken" printer is occupied. Worse, that printer is broken too. Oh noes! Despair! Pandemonium! Not really because the "broken" printer works like a charm as soon as I plug my gun back into the little charger. Crisis avoided. All is well with the world. Planner achievement unlocked. Moral: Kiosks are confusing and broken...always.

After well fill up on caffeine, it is off to the next stop: Bed, Bath & Beyond.

I will say this for BB&B: they know what you need to register for an how to streamline the process. There were no kiosks for us to mess with. Instead, we got to deal with actual people! What's more they have packages of things like kitchen gadgets, pots & pans, knives and other things. The piece sets out to make gift buying less intimidating and also to make us feel more comfortable about registering for the things that we will need in our life together. This freed up a lot of time for us to explore the different styles of dishes, flatware and other things. Basically, it was a way better way for us to register. I say thank you to the poor guy that spent forty five minutes with us as we changed our mind about the china and flatware that we wanted.

In the end, BB&B was not very stressful and the place that we had the most fun. Caveat: when you get packages of things like gadgets, you end up with a lot of things in the list that you don't recognize and that have little or no value to you (shrimp cleaner?).

The next stop in our odyssey was Target. When we went there, the system for creating and managing registries was experiencing technical difficulties (par for the course for the day). So we tabled that for another day.

Walmart was next door. We gave it an honest try, but we really didn't find anything there that we already didn't have and we ended up canceling the registry.

That night, we had dinner with Heather's friend Brandy at Old Chicago. The dinner was so so, but the company was awesome. We rarely get to see Brandy and we had a great time catching up.

Without boring you too much more, I will say that on Saturday we did finally register at Target. The system was back up and we were able to register for all the things we found at Walmart and then some. We finished the day with dinner at Sakura and an Easter Vigil mass at St. Joeseph's Church in Shawnee (2hrs. 45min.).

Sunday, we had Easter dinner with my Mom, Bob and my uncle John. It was a pretty lazy day.

We hope your Easter weekend was restful and full of fun, family fair.